“Its nonsense,” Netanyahu replied. “I plan to complete this candidacy and lead the Likud [political party] to a great victory in the 2019 elections.”

All recent polls show that Netanyahu would win by a large margin, that his political party would control at least a third of the Knesset and that he would manage to establish a coalition with relative ease.

The Israeli leader further boasted about strong support for his leadership within the Likud and on the Israeli street.

“I see great fortitude – there is no other way to say it,” he concluded.

Netanyahu is the second-longest-serving Israeli leader, after David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, and if his government lasts the full term, he will be the longest-serving. Elected four times, he was prime minister from 1996 until 1999 and again in 2009 until the present.